Butterfly lay up Felling Axe (fancy)

[allessence]

So after the most recent Hatchax build, I wanted a larger felling axe.

This Ax was started back 11/2018 at the last demo of the year..

My buddy Scotty helped with the mandrel and got the axe 1/4 of the way forged.

So the other day I pulled it out and got going on it.

This also a bowtie/butterfly method, though this is a little fancier way of doing it with a center scarf and a slot for the tools steel bit.

the ideal was a cutting edge between 6 and 7.5" and an overall weight of 5-7lbs.

this is the largest forging I have even done in terms of overall square inches in the forge.

The steel cutting edge was a full 5/16 thick.

[allessence]

I wanted a larger version of the hatchax.

[allessence]

I love doing items like this.. Lots of oh, yeah.. I remember now.

So because I was beveling the top and bottom of the blade the metal moved away from the eye..

this metal was then forged back in (upset) and this pushed the top and bottom sections away from the center mass.

[allessence]

For comparison the hatchax is shown in the last photo.

[allessence]

first photo is the top and bottom Mandrel.. And the tongs used.

The center line was forged in.. In the photo I mark out the center line on both sides so when I finish it with the file I can keep track of it.

Both the hatchax and this Felling Ax have a wear edge.. In other words they have a section of blade that when it wears and after 30or 40 sharpening it will look like a vintage axe that was/is brand new. This extension also makes the axe have less PSI in the center of the cut..

[allessence]

Heat treated and tempered. Hafted and ready for initial sharpening.


Because of the design it did take a little bit with the grinder to get down to a cutting edge.. The edge when hardned was about 1/8" thick. But because of the steep bevel there was a bunch of metal that needed to be removed.

[astronut]

As usual, very nice work!

[allessence]

She came out pretty good. Few items I don't like about it on the finish note.

But it's just me being super picky..

I will make 1 more in a size close to this but with all the mistakes made on this one corrected.

Really the only gripe is I was not able to get rid of the forging pits in the metal when finished.

I will acid etch it and throw some rustoleum gloss black on it once the final edge is put on.

[toprecycler]

Looks good, and a lot of work! ( in the making of it, and the use of it)


Sent from my iPhone using ShopFloorTalk

[midmosandblasting]

Don't get to down about the pits. They show it to be a hand crafted piece .